The Perfect Scout
224 pages, 6 x 9
3 B&W figures - 2 maps
Hardcover
Release Date:16 Jan 2018
ISBN:9780817319717
The Perfect Scout
A Soldier’s Memoir of the Great March to the Sea and the Campaign of the Carolinas
University of Alabama Press
A rare and dramatic first-person account by a Union scout who served General William Tecumseh Sherman on his “march to the sea”
After his father-in-law passed away, Stephen Murphy found, among the voluminous papers left behind, an ancestral memoir. Murphy quickly became fascinated with the recollections of George W. Quimby (1842–1926), a Union soldier and scout for General William Tecumseh Sherman.
Before Quimby became a part of Sherman’s March, he was held captive by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s troops in western Tennessee. He joined Sherman’s Army in Vicksburg, destroying railroads and bridges across Mississippi and Alabama on the way to Georgia. As the notorious march began, Quimby became a scout and no longer experienced war as his fellow soldiers did. Scouts moved ahead of the troops to anticipate opportunities and dangers. The rank and file were instructed to be seen and feared, while scouts were required to be invisible and stealthy. This memoir offers the rare perspective of a Union soldier who ventured into Confederate territory and sent intelligence to Sherman.
Written around 1901 in the wake of the Spanish American War, Quimby’s memoir shows no desire to settle old scores. He’s a natural storyteller, keeping his audience’s attention with tales of drunken frolics and narrow escapes, providing a memoir that reads more like an adventure novel. He gives a new twist to the familiar stories of Sherman’s March, reminding readers that while the Union soldiers faced few full-scale battles, the campaign was still quite dangerous.
More than a chronicle of day-to-day battles and marches, The Perfect Scout is more episodic and includes such additional elements as the story of how he met his wife and close encounters with the enemy. Offering a full picture of the war, Quimby writes not only about his adventures as one of Sherman’s scouts, but also about the suffering of the civilians caught in the war. He provides personal insight into some of the war’s historic events and paints a vivid picture of the devastation wreaked upon the South that includes destroyed crops and homes and a shattered economy. He also tells of the many acts of kindness he received from Southerners, including women and African Americans, who helped him and his fellow scouts by providing food, shelter, or information.
After his father-in-law passed away, Stephen Murphy found, among the voluminous papers left behind, an ancestral memoir. Murphy quickly became fascinated with the recollections of George W. Quimby (1842–1926), a Union soldier and scout for General William Tecumseh Sherman.
Before Quimby became a part of Sherman’s March, he was held captive by Nathan Bedford Forrest’s troops in western Tennessee. He joined Sherman’s Army in Vicksburg, destroying railroads and bridges across Mississippi and Alabama on the way to Georgia. As the notorious march began, Quimby became a scout and no longer experienced war as his fellow soldiers did. Scouts moved ahead of the troops to anticipate opportunities and dangers. The rank and file were instructed to be seen and feared, while scouts were required to be invisible and stealthy. This memoir offers the rare perspective of a Union soldier who ventured into Confederate territory and sent intelligence to Sherman.
Written around 1901 in the wake of the Spanish American War, Quimby’s memoir shows no desire to settle old scores. He’s a natural storyteller, keeping his audience’s attention with tales of drunken frolics and narrow escapes, providing a memoir that reads more like an adventure novel. He gives a new twist to the familiar stories of Sherman’s March, reminding readers that while the Union soldiers faced few full-scale battles, the campaign was still quite dangerous.
More than a chronicle of day-to-day battles and marches, The Perfect Scout is more episodic and includes such additional elements as the story of how he met his wife and close encounters with the enemy. Offering a full picture of the war, Quimby writes not only about his adventures as one of Sherman’s scouts, but also about the suffering of the civilians caught in the war. He provides personal insight into some of the war’s historic events and paints a vivid picture of the devastation wreaked upon the South that includes destroyed crops and homes and a shattered economy. He also tells of the many acts of kindness he received from Southerners, including women and African Americans, who helped him and his fellow scouts by providing food, shelter, or information.
. . . Quimby’s experiences allow a rare insight into the world of a Civil War scout and grant us a glimpse at the technical inner workings of a scout corps operating under General Sherman. Quimby’s memoirs make an interesting data point among the scholarship into irregular combatants and their experiences undercover in the Confederate South.’
—North Carolina Historical Review
‘Though family lore often told of Quimby’s Civil War exploits, it appears the typed memoir lay dormant and unseen until 1990, when Stephen Murphy (the husband of Quimby’s great-great-granddaughter) found it in three legal-sized folders while cleaning out the house of his wife’s recently deceased father. Civil War students every-where should be thankful that Mr. Murphy made his fortuitous discovery.’
—Civil War News
‘An important contribution to Civil War scholarship. It provides the perspective of a scout, and there are few published narratives by men who held this important role.’
—Wendy Venet, author of A Changing Wind: Commerce and Conflict in Civil War Atlanta
The Perfect Scout is a good read that will appeal to a general audience as well as scholars. George Quimby had a gift for storytelling and a great sense of humor.’
—Lorien Foote, author of The Gentlemen and the Roughs: Violence, Honor, and Manhood in the Union Army
Anne Sarah Rubin is a professor of history and the associate director of the Imaging Research Center at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is the author of Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and American Memory and the award-winning A Shattered Nation: The Rise and Fall of the Confederacy, 1861–1868.
Stephen Murphy is a retired management consultant for small businesses. His wife, Chris, is the great-great-granddaughter of George W. Quimby and helped bring Quimby's unpublished manuscript to the attention of the scholarly community. They live in Seattle, Washington.
Stephen Murphy is a retired management consultant for small businesses. His wife, Chris, is the great-great-granddaughter of George W. Quimby and helped bring Quimby's unpublished manuscript to the attention of the scholarly community. They live in Seattle, Washington.
